


A Daydream of Narnia

by devilinthedetails



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Daydreaming, Fluff, Gen, Longing for Narnia in England, Magician's Nephew, Reverie, mush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29720214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: On a beautiful summer day in England, Polly and Digory daydream of Narnia.
Kudos: 4





	A Daydream of Narnia

**Author's Note:**

> Set after Magician's Nephew during one of Polly's visits to the countryside as described at the end of the book.

A Daydream of Narnia

Polly and Digory perched on rocky promontory at the peak of the tallest mountain on the edge of the property Digory’s father had inherited upon the death of Digory’s Great-Uncle Kirke. Polly had taken the train down from London to visit Digory for several weeks when she was free from school during the summer holidays. 

The mountain might have been the highest on the expansive land that now belonged to Digory’s father, but it was still so small compared to the ice and snow crowned summits Polly had seen in Narnia. Towering mountaintops of snow and ice that had glistened like diamonds in the new sun of Narnia. That she had flown among on the strong back of Fledge, the First Flying Horse of Narnia, with Digory beside her as she helped him fulfill his Aslan-appointed mission. How she wished she was on a Narnian mountain now instead of an English one. The English one of her present reality seemed so crushingly disappointing in comparison to the Narnian one of her eternal memory. 

“It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” Digory asked. It was indeed a beautiful day. The perennial gray cloud cover of England had broken, so that the summer sun shone hot on their faces, and the air around them was pure and clear even if not so pure and clear as the fresh Narnian air that had promised new life and hope with every inhalation. 

“Yes.” Polly nodded. If she squinted into the sunlight, she could see acres of verdant parks and pastures stretching into the distance. Brown woodlands and rivers that looked like blue ribbons strewn across the ground from this height divided the uneven squares of the patchwork landscape below them. She wondered if this view was anything like what God saw when he stared down at England from the heavens. Everything looked so perfect and peaceful from above. Yet the niggling thought remained that it wasn’t as perfect and peaceful as Narnia remained and demanded to be voiced. “Not quite as beautiful a day as a Narnian one.” 

“Narnia was a young world.” Digory’s sigh echoed her own longing, her own daydream, to be back in Narnia if not for another adventure than to just wander through the woods and sprawl in the flowered meadows, staring up at the mountains so far above. “Our world isn’t so young.” 

“No, it isn’t,” Polly agreed. For a long moment, she was silent, remembering the rhythm of Fledge’s wings flapping beneath her in the new air of Narnia. Then, she asked the question that had bubbled at the back of her mind since their return from Narnia, “You had in your hands an apple that could’ve let you live forever if you’d eaten it. Do you ever wish you’d eaten it?” 

She recalled how tempted Digory had been by the worming words of Jadis, but he had seemed tempted by the chance to heal his mother, not to be immortal himself. 

“No.” Digory shuddered, and she knew that he had to be remembering how Jadis had tempted him as well. “I wouldn’t want to live forever. At least not like that. It’d be a corrupt, monstrous life because like Aslan said length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery. A miserable person wouldn’t be able to soak in the beauty of a summer sun on a mountain peak, and what would be the point of being immortal if you couldn’t appreciate the summer sun on a mountain peak? It’d be life with no meaning, no value.” 

Narnia felt like the ultimate life and meaning to Polly. Being away from it made her heart break at same time the memory of it beat with endless, unstoppable hope inside her. “Do you think we’ll ever see Narnia again?” 

“I don’t know.” Digory shook his head. “Or, that is to say, I don’t know if we’ll ever go back to Narnia again in our lifetimes, but I believe that if we hold onto the unfading memory of it in our minds and our hearts, it’s mark will be upon us forever, and we’ll be able to see it again whenever we close our eyes. Whenever we daydream.” 

“Whenever we wish to remember,” murmured Polly, shutting her eyes along with Digory and allowing herself to drift into a reverie of Narnia as if she were floating on a gentle ocean current.


End file.
